Well done, Edinburgh. Unaccustomed as this Glaswegian is to tipping her hat to the capital, I must hand it to you. I’ve had a week of struggling through festival crowds with a mobile office on my back, and I’m ready for a long lie down in a darkened room. Wake me in February 2027, thanks. 

How do the people of Edinburgh do it? With so many festivals at the same time, it must be tempting to offload one of them. One that doesn’t cater to the public, and only attracts attention when some starry presence - such as Emily Maitlis, Rupert Murdoch, David Attenborough, Louis Theroux - jets in to give a lecture. 

We’re talking about the Edinburgh TV Festival, or as it will be known from next year, the TV Festival. After an open bidding process, The TV Foundation, organisers of the week-long event, have decided that it will be cheaper - especially for accommodation - and easier all round to go to Manchester.

There doesn’t appear to be much love lost between the TV Festival and Screen Scotland, the Scottish Government agency, with the latter describing its soon-to-be ex-partner as “an event run from an office in London”. Among the industry in Scotland, the TV Festival has a reputation for attracting what the late AA Gill used to call “Tristrams”, privileged Oxbridge meeja types straight off the train from King’s Cross. Wherever the TV Festival sets up camp - usually in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre - immediately becomes the UK capital of black-rimmed spectacles and £400 trainers. 

For all those reasons and a few more, there has not........

© Herald Scotland